PASSINGS: Murray Handwerker

Murray Handwerker, 89, who turned Nathan's Famous, the Coney Island hot dog stand founded by his father, into a national franchise, died May 14 at his home in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. He suffered from dementia, said his son, Bill.

Handwerker was born in New York City on July 25, 1921, five years after his Polish-immigrant father, Nathan Handwerker, opened the hot dog stand.

The younger Handwerker later said he "grew up behind the griddle" at the stand that became a Coney Island landmark.